Transforming Opportunity for Women and Girls

Nigeria is tackling gender inequality head-on with innovative reforms and programs to provide women with greater economic mobility. The Federal Government is addressing unequal treatment in land, property and inheritance rights, which in turn, will provide women with better access to public services and enable more to start a business or manage a farm. This multi-pronged approach is gaining international recognition, and positioning Nigeria as a leader in gender equality among developing countries.

Expanding Economic Opportunity

Nigeria’s commitment to empowering women begins at the very top. President Jonathan has demonstrated a commitment to increasing the role of women in public policy and governance by appointing 13 women ministers (out of a total of 42) and four Special Advisors (out of 18) into his cabinet. Nearly a third of all political appointees in the federal government today are women – the highest percentage of any African country.
Nigeria's Ministers of Communication Technology and Finance discuss the steps being taken to close Nigeria's gender gap.
At the other end of the socio-economic ladder, the government’s Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria (G-WIN) program aims to improve economic and social opportunities for hard to reach women and girls throughout the country. About 54 million of Nigeria’s 80 million women live and work in rural areas, where they constitute 60% - 80% of the rural labor force. The G-WIN project is an unprecedented coordinated effort among the ministries of Water Resources,  Agriculture, Works, Health, and Communications. Some early results of the initiative include:

• About 2 million women farmers have received mobile phones that allow them to access agricultural information to improve their farming methods. An e-wallet system allows the electronic transfer of money to purchase farm inputs like seeds and fertilizer.
• Through the SmartWoman Nigeria project, a part of G-WIN, the Ministry of Communications Technology is providing daily information on life skills, money management, entrepreneurship, careers, healthcare, parenting, and legal issues (such as wills and land ownership) to women. Through the SmartGirl Nigeria program, the Ministry is setting up IT clubs in schools, identifying mentors to support girls and young women, and creating a help desk to support their interest in information technologies.
• The Ministry of Health is increasing the pace of offering obstetric fistula surgery, a health condition that makes women incontinent after childbirth. Women who suffer from this condition are usually ostracized, and require specialized surgery. More surgeons have been trained and recruited for the program, and new treatment centers are being opened.
• There is a focus on capacity building for rural women by training them in water management, providing water kiosks and sanitation facilities, and better maintaining rural roads to help them travel more easily.

G-WIN is receiving technical and capacity-building support from UK-based DfID, and additional support is being sought so the program can be scaled up to other ministries.

UN Women Recognizes Nigeria

In October, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communication Technology was one of seven global recipients of the UN Women’s Gender Equality Mainstreaming–Technology Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievements by organizations and individuals in the area of women’s empowerment through information and communications technologies (ICT).
“The Nigerian government recognizes ICTs as tools for empowering women and girls and has put in place policy frameworks to ensure that gender issues move from the sidelines of policy and decision making and become one of the key priorities,” said ITU and UN Women.

Investing in Education and Health

Of the estimated 10 million children in Nigeria who do not attend school, the majority are girls.
Girls who are educated are better able to contribute to future economic growth when they become adults. That is why the federal government has launched the Girls Education Project (GEP), a partnership formed with UNICEF to promote girls’ education. GEP focuses on interventions in health, water and sanitation, and income-generation activities to support girls’ in school. The project works in six Northern states where access to basic education for girls is limited. By the time the project ends in 2020, an expected 1 million more girls will have access to better quality education.
 Studies show that educated women are more likely to use health services and have fewer and better-nourished children who are more likely to survive childhood illnesses. But education alone isn’t enough. There needs to be increased spending on healthcare for women and girls.
To promote a more holistic approach to addressing gender disparities in the health sector, in 2012 the Nigerian Government launched the Saving One Million Lives by 2015 Programme, which aims to expand access to essential primary healthcare services for women and children.
This initiative is focused on improving maternal, newborn and child health at thousands of primary healthcare clinics; expanding routine immunization coverage; preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV; scaling up access to essential medicines to marginalized groups; expanding the use of anti-malaria bed nets and medications; and improving child nutrition.
The program has gained the support of several multilateral and international partners, including the World Health Organization, World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Population Fund.